The following article is intended for those watching at Dave pace.
UKTV Play viewers should keep the comments spoiler-free until broadcast. More info.

Hello there, Dave viewers. I must admit I’m slightly envious – you’ve got two episodes of Series XII left, and the rest of us have only got one. All that will change at 9pm tonight on Dave, and we’ll all briefly be in the same boat for about forty minutes after the episode airs. As usual, this is the thread for viewers of all paces to register their thoughts on the episode, but the UKTV Play lot should be wary of giving anything away before broadcast.

Just watched this as been away for the last couple of weeks (got back today and not really slept in the last 24 hours so perhaps not the best time to) & here are some notes from the recording that may or may not have been mentioned:

– The first scene featured Lister eating breakfast and sulking a bit with Rimmer pointing out that he’s dead so Lister’s better off than him.

– In the med room, Rimmer tricks Lister into finding out when he’ll die (Chippy asks if he wants to know and Rimmer says ‘beer?’ so Lister replies ‘go on then’.)

– When Rimmer is turned back on after reboot, I think they used the old Windows boot up sound (a fairly long monotone one)

– Pretty sure that Kryten said that whatever it was he found in the Captain’s quarter was hidden by doughnuts.

– Bit hard to explain but they did a still shot of Lister on the sleeping quarters floor after he collapsed and it kind of looked like he was humping it (despite not moving) and people started giggling and Craig looked up with a big grin on his face.

– According to Robert, the script said “Kryten lifts the lid to reveal a zillion chips”. Doug then stopped the scene during filming as there were too many chips.

What I don’t like about the scene is that it’s JUST chips. Who eats a massive plate of JUST chips? No sausage, no fish, no king rib? Not very appetising. I think I’ve figured out the reason I don’t like M-Corp as much now, honestly.

m-corp takes the krysis slot, the spookycool episode. m-corp is better tho. m-corp is the goodsmeg. even m-corp has one of those lines that just clunk like the incorrect sound effect from a quiz show goes off in everyone’s head. what’s with that? it just comes out of no-where. reminds you of the end, and then literally restages the end at the end. bleak and weird and funny.

I’ve been wanting to say something in this thread since I saw it, but I’ve been struggling to think of things to say other than “love this, love that, this is good, ooh I liked that bit!”. A* episode. It’s hard to argue that this isn’t the best of the Dave era (assuming Skipper doesn’t beat it when it comes on TV next week). Excellent concept, good pacing, near-perfect balance of comedy and drama, all 4 leads get enough screen time. Just wonderful.

So, given a couple of days to think about it, here are my random extra thoughts:

– Chippy was definitely one of the best sentient appliances, I’d be happy for it to make a return, as there a plenty of plot reasons for a character to need medical assistance. Could’ve used it in Fathers & Suns, Can of Worms, Epideme etc.

– This made me think, is there a real distinction in Dwarf between sentient appliances like vending machines, Talkie Toaster, Skutters etc., deliberately humanoid robots like Kryten, and almost wholly software-based beings like Holly or medi-bot – or is that just a human prejudice? If there is, in which Category does Snacky belong? What about Rimmer? (P.S. BRING BACK SNACKY.)

– It didn’t really make sense that The Cat in particular would become silent and invisible to Lister (not only is Cat a registered crew member by this point, but even an M-Corp ship should be expected to encounter non-M-Corp-employees at one point or another), but the results are so good I don’t care. I’m willing to buy that this was a fully intentional psychological attack on Lister, to condition him to accept the teleport.

– The “piecing together Lister’s personality/memories from security footage” idea didn’t really scan as an explanation. I’d find it more believable that Kryten could take a back-up of Lister’s current mind, and very slowly pick out and reassemble the uncorrupted parts. But either way, it was definitely worth getting that ending scene.

– Given that memories are brought up, and M-Corp specifically messes with Lister’s brain, imagine if they had erased all non-M-Corp products from his memory, too? You could get a whole new episode out of that idea!

– I agree with the conclusion that the “lol women speak more than men” line was sexist and gratuitous. Doug should have really given that one further thought, or the script editor should have raised objections.

– On the subject of word counts, am I right in thinking that Lister’s daily word limit of 200 is the same as the number Holly said he shared with Kochanski in Balance of Power? (Prior to the DNA/Psirens/Ouroboros retcon of course.) Nice coincidence if so.

– I’m really curious if any of the invisibility effects were done live, and if so, how? Was there a lot of green screen all over the place? Definitely looking forward to the DVD for that one.

– It was mentioned in the Dwarfcast that Cat looking like he was making a “wanking off” motion when he was shaking up the lager can was an unintentional joke… but was it? I definitely interpreted this as the primary intended joke as I was watching it.

Anyway, can’t wait for Skipper! Except I obviously can wait, because I’m not watching the UKTV Play version. But I’m still excited. So far Series XII is 4 for 4. =D

>What I don’t like about the scene is that it’s JUST chips. Who eats a massive plate of JUST chips?

I went to the chippy tonight and while I was waiting for my char sui fu yung and chips there were at LEAST two people who came in and just bought portions of chips and nothing else. So yah boo sucks to you.

>I went to the chippy tonight and while I was waiting for my char sui fu yung and chips there were at LEAST two people who came in and just bought portions of chips and nothing else. So yah boo sucks to you.

Yeah, a portion of chips though. What Lister was eating is more than a portion. And Kryten made it for him to be nice, you’d think he’d throw some fish on there or something. Also what the hell kind of chippy serves char sui fu yung, a foodstuff I had to google, and can you give me the exact opening times and address please

Kryten becomes Invisible to Lister along with all non Mcorp tech. Unseen by Lister he removes Talkie toaster from garbage hold and Installs him in the sleeping quarters, making good on his mechocracy election promise lister unable to hear the toaster forcing grilled bread at him , makes some toast in him for the first time in decades with beans. Before lister is reverted to being 23, and proceeds to twat the toaster regularly for talking or singing or anything, eventually strapping him to a skipper device and sending him off to the dimension where every single denial of toast from lister was actually the opposite decision of a toastaholic Lister.

>yeah i had to google char sui fu yung too. why would a chippy serve that?

Because it’s a Chinese chippy, as many of the chippies on Merseyside are.

This doesn’t seem to be as much of a thing in the south. When I lived in London you had chippies or you had Chinese takeaways that also did chips, but you didn’t get proper Chinese chippies the way you do here. They serve the full standard range of “English” chip shop fare (and do it better than anyone, frankly), but they also do Chinese food. As such, you can get a fu yung or a chow mein with proper chip shop chips.

Because it’s a Chinese chippy, as many of the chippies on Merseyside are.
This doesn’t seem to be as much of a thing in the south. When I lived in London ….

London isn’t the south. I’m a southerner and most towns I’ve lived in have had that fish & chip shop that also does Chinese. Pretty standard practice in places that aren’t quite big enough to provide a customer base for two takeaways.

And here I am in the Great White North, an hours drive west from the most northerly city with any significant population in Canada, and I am still technically south of Manchester when compared on a globe.

Yeah, a portion of chips though. What Lister was eating is more than a portion.

I for one am shocked – SHOCKED – that Red Dwarf would resort to the low art of exaggeration. What purpose does it serve to move straight from Lister being warned about looking after his health to Lister eating a massive pile of one type of fried food? None that I can think of. It completely undermines the character of David Lister, who – as we all know – has only been depicted as having totally realistic and relatable eating habits up until now.

I know, right? It’s fucking ridiculous. Robots, I can believe in. Holograms, I can believe. But one man eating that amount of chips?? It’s just absurd. Talk about suspension of disbelief! That is Series VIII levels of silliness.

…

Honestly though, some of the Bodyswap food stuff I find (almost) a bit much. Mostly the stuff in deleted scenes, though, if I remember rightly. I find “a whole pound of butter” fucking hilarious, but pouring gravy on your head is a bit silly.